Main menu

Post navigation

OMG SPACE HANAMARU, GAINAX I LOVE YOU SO MUCH (Hanamaru Kindergarten ED2)

OMG. THIS IS SO AWESOME. I am going to do a post on Hanamaru Kindergarten episode 2, which was amazing in it’s own right, but I knew I just had to set aside a separate post for this.

GAINAX is my favorite anime studio. It’s not just because of the fact that they have produced such consistently amazing anime, but because they understand their viewers and they are all such utter otaku. Hanamaru Kindergarten is an amazing show because even as it isn’t quite like another anime you’ve seen, it is still quite definitively something that otaku can enjoy.

There is something that people, otaku themselves included, tend to forget about the mindset of otaku. Sure, we are perverse, and we have a tendency to look at too many things in a sexual light. Sure, we twist things that we see in our own demented ways. However, it’s not like otaku don’t love cute things. It’s not like all of us liked Card Captors Sakura so much just because we had dirty thoughts about Sakura, we also loved the show because it was cute, entertaining, and fun.

Hanamaru Kindergarten is a show that is for everyone – it’s for kids, it’s for boys and girls, and it’s also totally for otaku who will appreciate it and enjoy it just for being a cute, fun show. The show gives it’s nods to otaku with things like mentioning ‘gamer brain’ and talking about Anzu’s love for her teacher not in a naughty way, but in a funny and in some ways referential way.

So I get why GAINAX wanted to do an ending video like this. They understood that otaku were watching and loving this show, and they gave a big, otaku nod to that audience by doing what they do best – remembering the FUCK out of love and letting it loose. Epic, manly, burning, passionate love like no other that floods into your hearts and delights to no end.

God, I love you GAINAX. You know how to make my otaku blood burn bright red!

You’re using the term otaku as a sales pitch, which is one of the things the OEG folk seem to hate most. Watch this show! It’s for otaku! Spend money on this because I said otaku! Otaku love Gainax! Otaku love cute stuff! Otaku can love non-sexualized cute stuff even if they don’t think they can! If otaku need to be told what they like, they’re not obsessed with it, and thus they’re not otaku with respect to that area of interest.

As for the ending, I don’t see what it has to do with otaku. I’d expect anyone with a fair appreciation of anime to love it.

lol. If that’s how it really sounds, then you’d be thoroughly misreading my intentions, and I think you know this. No matter what, it is undeniable that otaku have interests that are fairly uniform among them, but that wasn’t the point here, either. The point is, if you look at otaku, what do you see? The perception of them is people who will watch everything, and will give all of it a perverse side. That’s just how the culture is seen. For instance, there is no denying that many otaku (statistically speaking) love Card Captors Sakura. Among them, many love Sakura for being the so-called most attractive loli ever (I’m with this sentiment). I’m just pointing out that not all otaku would like it for such a reason, or even if they do, then it’s not the only reason, because they also appreciate it’s cuteness (I’m with this, too, otherwise I wouldn’t be watching and loving Futago Hime).

This is just fact. It would be one thing if I was pulling this generalization out of my ass, but the truth is, otaku like cute things. It’s the reason that otaku are known to watch so many magical girl shows, otherwise the industry wouldn’t pump out shit like Nanoha and Twin Angel so frequently to satiate that otaku need. However, those shows always tend to play up the sexual element, as if otaku are just in it for their lolicon tendencies, which is not the case. Otherwise, I’m sure that shows like this one wouldn’t get made – a ‘by otaku for otaku’ show that understands the heart of their interests and that they might want a show about nothing but cuteness.

I didn’t say ‘otaku love Gainax’, but I do say that MY otakudom loves GAINAX. They have ALWAYS been ‘the otaku studio’. They have always been a team of otaku who know how to REMEMBER LOVE, and otaku can appreciate this. It’s epitomized by their having created what is without a doubt the greatest otaku anime of all time ‘Otaku no Video’ way back in the day.

Have you seen Otaku no Video? Guess what – this ending theme is the spitting image of it. Sure, there’s the chance that regular fans can appreciate it, but will regular fans know immediately that the ship shown at 00:14 is the spitting image of the Yamato or grasp how the cockpit setup has Tsuchi, the one male, as commander, and the rest of the girls are his bridge bunnies? These are things tailor-made for experienced viewers to grasp.

BR, you ought to know this, but I am not a fucking salesman. I do not want to sell you into watching Hanamaru Kindergarten, and if I did, then the text in this post has nothing to do with that. I linked to the ED video on twitter and I could have posted it here by itself and it would have been enough, but I had quite an emotional reaction to it, hence my writing about it. I knew that the writing was risky because I riddled it with ‘facts’ about otaku that can’t really be founded. However, I know that my readerbase is void of otaku. Most of my followers either aren’t otaku or are flat-out opposed to be called otaku. I have no one but myself to try and appeal to with this vibrant speech of otaku pride or whatever. It’s my own thing.

As far as I’m concerned, this show is made by otaku, and while it is intended to reach quite a decent audience perhaps, it knows that otaku are watching, and it’s showing us it’s otaku face.

Okay… I kinda annoyed the fact that Anzu said he wanted to marry her teacher whatever. But like you said, it just kid’s fantasy. What I am pissed about is her mother encouraging her with stuff like that. I believe that kids that age should get the appropriate input so they will lead their life the right way, so they won’t end up whoring. And sadly, that’s what my brain is interpreting her mother’s words of approval. But then again, her mother had sex with her teacher and produced her >_>

lol don’t be so uptight. Raise your kids to understand that true love comes in any form. What if Anzu really persists to love the teacher all the way through his life, and at 18 ends up marrying him? It’s more possible than you think, and I can’t imagine a relationship I’d support more.